A typical user has access to a number of electronic devices to execute one or more communications needs of the user. For example, a typical user may have access to a desktop computer, a laptop, a smartphone and a tablet device for executing one or more actions, such as: sending and receiving e-mails, browsing the Internet, sending different types of text messages, listening to music and watching streamed content, making voice calls and the like.
In recent years, a typical electronic device the user may use offers converging services—i.e. ability to execute divergent tasks by a single computing apparatus. For example, a typical smart phone can allow the user to execute such divergent tasks as: sending e-mail (text entry and data transmission), browsing Internet and making audio calls (cellular or data).
A typical browser executed on the electronic device (such as a Chrome™ browser, for example) has a functionality that allows the browser to locate and highlight (or otherwise visually and functionally modify) certain portions of text of interest). As an example, such a process is executed to support additional functionality such as Skype™ calls to Skype addresses or telephone numbers, which Skype calls can be initiated by clicking on (or otherwise actuating) a highlighted phone number or Skype address in a body of content displayed in the browser, such as a web page and the like. When implementing such “Skype click to call” function, the browser locates telephone numbers in the web page to be displayed in the browser. A browser may identify a telephone number in a body of content displayed in the browser, highlight the identified telephone number and render it interactable (i.e. enabling the user to click on the highlighted telephone number in order to initiate the Skype call).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,418,657 discloses methodology through which a host site may automatically insert relevant links into a set of text. In this methodology, the contents of the text are compared against a database containing character strings, and the character strings from the database contained in the text are identified. Each of the character strings in the database has an associated link that connects to other webpages on the same website or other websites. For each character string of the database found in the contents of the text, the associated link is inserted into the text. In this way, only relevant links are inserted into the text.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,668,929 teaches procedure for preparing electronic resources for delivery to client computers is disclosed. When rendered on a browser for display, the electronic resources (e.g., web pages) include a reference link to another electronic resource. In response to receiving a request for delivery of a specific resource to a client computer, a server computer retrieves the resource from storage and examines the resource to locate any link identifiers contained therein. If a link identifier is detected, the network address corresponding to this link identifier is identified by the server and incorporated into the requested electronic resource in place of the link identifier. The prepared resource is then delivered to the client computer for rendering on a browser.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,065 discloses a system for automatically providing hypertext for character strings of a text file at a content server. A central server provides central control of the links of text files of a plurality of content servers in an information network such as the Internet. The central server intermittently updates each content server with new character strings and/or destination addresses, such as Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). The content servers also update the central server with new character strings. Optionally, each content server can query the central server on a real-time basis to obtain a destination address for a character string which does not have a corresponding valid destination address. The central server responds to such queries by searching its master databases, and using a search engine if required. Hit count data is maintained at the content servers and transmitted to the central server intermittently.
US 2008/0304113 teaches systems and methods that facilitate mitigating searchable electronic document size increases associated with embedded font definition files by embedding only font size information. When a document is scanned or converted into a PDF or XPS document image, glyphless font size information describing character dimensions for fonts used in the document is embedded into the document image. The glyphless font size information is on the order of a few kilobytes in size, and is later read by a searcher to facilitate highlighting search terms identified in the document image in response to a user query. A highlight block is generated to have a width substantially equal to the combined widths of the characters in the queried term, which are described in the glyphless font information. The highlight block is then overlaid on the image of the queried term, and presented to the user.
US patent application 2010/0332967 discloses methods and systems for automatically generating web page augmentation for web pages. In one embodiment, a computer implemented method for automatically providing a web page augmentation is provided. The method includes analyzing content of a web page to determine if a web page augmentation is needed for the web page. If the web page augmentation is needed, the method proceeds to determine a type of web page augmentation needed for the web page based on the content of the web page. The method also includes issuing a request to generate the web page augmentation, and receiving the web page augmentation sent by a web page augmentation generating system. The method further includes displaying the web page augmentation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,428,711 discloses Methods for rendering electronic ink with highlighting attributes include: (a) receiving data representing at least one electronic ink stroke including a highlighting attribute; (b) rendering a first highlighting stroke in a first dimension and in a first highlighting color and/or pattern; and (c) rendering an ink color stroke in an ink color and/or pattern and in a second dimension that is smaller than the first dimension to produce a composite stroke that has a highlighted appearance. When the highlighted stroke is selected, this stroke may be rendered with a third, inner layer that is narrower than the ink colored layer, in a highlight color and/or pattern. This invention also relates to systems and computer-readable media for performing these methods, and to data structures that include a highlight attribute with electronic ink data.